Social Collaborative e-Learning in Higher Education: Exploring the Role of Informal Learning

This position paper presents work in progress (within the first year) of the doctoral research into adoption of social collaborative e-learning in higher education. The research coins three concepts which intersect to form the fourth, social collaborative e-learning. These concepts are: informal learning, social networking and learning management. This paper explores the conceptual and theoretical role of informal learning practices in building social collaborative elearning environment. Specifically the paper will: 1. Explain the role of informal learning in formal educational setting 2. Introduce informal learning strategies that can be adopted within formal educational programmes to scaffold e-learning 3. Discuss the implications of involving educators and learners in informal interactions as a scaffold to formal education. The paper concentrates on how strategies can be used to promote social collaborative e-learning within a higher education context. The desk-based research method was used in this research leading to the development of a framework for informal learning proposed in this paper.